Internet Pioneers: Metcalfe

As a graduate student, Bob Metcalfe worked on the ARAPNET at MIT. He later developed a new technology, called Ethernet, for connecting computers in a local network.

Work on the ARAPNET

Metcalfe was born in 1946, in Brooklyn, NY. He attended MIT where he earned degrees in electrical engineering and business management. He then earned a master's degree in applied mathematics from Harvard. While working on his Ph.D. in computer science at Harvard, he took a job at MIT building the hardware that would link MIT to the ARPANET. For a 1972 ARPANET conference he wrote an introductory pamphlet entitled Scenarios. The booklet included 19 scenarios for using the ARPANET, listed available resources at the various sites, and basic usage instructions.

Metcalfe had done a good job writing his informative booklet and was chosen to take ten AT&T officials on a virtual tour of the network. Unfortunately, the system crashed while Metcalfe was giving his demonstration. "I looked up in pain and I caught them smiling, delighted that packet-switching was flaky," said Metcalfe. "This I will never forget. It confirmed for them that circuit-switching technology was here to stay, and this packet-switching stuff was an unreliable toy that would never have much impact in the commercial world. It was clear to me they were tangled in the past." (Engelbart in Hafner & Lyon, 182).

Metcalfe's unpleasant experience with the AT&T officials made a lasting impression. "I saw that there are people who will connive against innovation," said Metcalfe. "They're hostile to it. And that has shaped my behavior ever since." (Engelbart in Kirsner)[continue]